


Humans Shouldn't Measure Cats By Their Years

by Bam4Me



Series: Kitten Love [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cat Ears, Cat Harry, Cat/Human Hybrids, Couch Cuddles, Cuddling & Snuggling, Draco and Harry bond together, Gen, Hybrids, Non-Sexual Age Play, Platonic Cuddling, Slight Ageplay, This is pure fluff, adults acting like children, character introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 03:38:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10982562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bam4Me/pseuds/Bam4Me
Summary: Harry is far to smart to constantly act the way he does. At least, Draco thinks so.What Draco doesn't understand is that you can't measure a person by things like how often they cry or why they scream every time it's bath time. Harry understands. He's wiser than all of them.





	Humans Shouldn't Measure Cats By Their Years

**Author's Note:**

> Yooooooooooooooo, was not expecting this to go the way it did. Draco is 100% sure he loves kittens now and would happily steal him from Bill and Fleur (BTW the ORIGINAL plot for the sequels of this series was intended to have Ginny and Draco get married and Harry to move in with them and stuff, but like????? Bill is Harry's whole world sometimes in this one and I don't think I can pull them apart???????? Ugh. Things have Changed.) except he cannot stand to see Harry cry??? And Harry WOULD cry. Draco has decided he loves this smol fuzzy baby tho.
> 
> harrypottergays.tumblr.com

“What’s got you so upset?”

 

Ginny sat down next to Draco with a butterbeer in either hand, giving one of them to her fiance before curling up at his side. Draco grunted once, still watching Harry out in the field. The hybrid was lazily hanging upside down on a wobbling dangerously broomstick, tail twitching behind him while he eyed up some gnomes.

 

Ginny knew she’d probably find at least one of them dead later, and the rest of the lot would be running from Harry in fear for the rest of his stay there.

 

“I was the top seeker for Slytherin team for  _ five _ years at Hogwarts. Gin, Gin, I’m not a bad player, I’ve been asked to try out for national UK teams, Ginny, why do I keep being beat by a freaking  _ kitten _ every time he’s here?”

 

Ginny turned away from Draco, giggling loudly, making him finally turn away from watching Harry, and glare at her. “Honey, I think he’s just particularly good? He loves snitches, you know, he’s got a whole pile of them in his room. Bill says he’s liable to pilfer anything gold he finds.”

 

Draco frowned. “Well, one; that’s not something to be proud of, and two; do you think he’s where my mother’s broach disappeared off to? And C, he wears  _ glasses _ , how can he be that good at finding a tiny little flying gold ball?”

 

Ginny shrugged. “I don’t know, but you should probably ask him about the broach before Bill comes back to get him with Fleur, Harry has a tendency to wander off with items that we don’t get back till Bill finds and returns them. Apparently, he thinks the neighbor’s buddha statue brings great fortune and has pilfered it, no less than five times. Well, either that, or he’s just fucking with people at this point.”

 

Draco thinks it’s that one. Harry was too damn cute not to know what he was doing.

 

***

 

Draco was sitting in the living room, alone, when Harry found him.

 

Harry tended to ignore most humans other than Bill and Fleur, unless they had something of interest to him at the moment, but he stopped in the doorway and studied the way Draco was slumped in on himself, hands clutching at a letter from his mother and father. Harry didn’t think he looked very happy.

 

He started chewing on his lip, tail curling around his side so he could pick at it nervously, looking around for a human to help him. Humans always knew what to do, and Ginny always helped Draco, and even other humans could help, but there were none. Most of the household was out today at some sort of event.

 

Draco had stayed behind with a headache that he wanted to sleep off, and Harry had made ungodly howling noises when Bill had tried to get him out the door. How did Bill expect Harry to survive out there??? It’s less than ten degrees outside! How completely rude of him.

 

No no, Harry had stayed home in the warm house with heating spells and comfy places to sleep and a bed to snuggle in.

 

But, now Draco was upset, and there were no humans around to help him.

 

That’s not okay.

 

Harry wandered quietly over to the side of the couch that Draco was sitting on, watching the blonde rub at his temples with a little sigh. Harry let out a hesitant meow, and Draco jumped, looking at him in surprised. “Oh, Harry, you startled me.”

 

Harry meowed again in reply, rounded the couch with a little more confidence than he felt and climbing up onto the couch cushions next to Draco so he could snuggle up to him. “Draco is upset.”

 

Draco nodded. “Yes, it's okay though, I just had a headache. I'm fine.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes where Draco couldn't see it. He was a kitten, not an idiot. He picked up the forgotten letter from Draco’s lap and stared at it. He knew how to read, Bill had taught him. 

 

Except? These weren't words?? Harry glared down at the parchment, entirely offended. If someone had sent him a letter with gibberish written on it, he'd be upset too. He held the parchment up to Draco, still looking offended. “Why’s this stupid?”

 

Draco stared down at the kitten for a good ten seconds before letting out a snorting giggle, unable to hold it back as it turned into a tumbling laugh for a good twenty seconds more, while Harry glared at him angrily, apparently, not happy with being laughed at. 

 

“Stupid? What do you mean, kitten?”

 

Harry shrugged, handing the parchment back to him. “Those aren't words, they're stupid. If someone sent me that I'd be upset too.”

 

Draco shook his head, still amused, and leaned back against the couch tiredly when Harry climbed into his lap, demanding pets and snuggles for his troubles. Draco accepted the kitten there, happy for the affection. “It's not stupid, Har, it's French.”

 

Harry let out the most dramatic gasp ever. “Someone is speaking French to you? How can they be so mean?”

 

Draco looked down at him with a raised eyebrow. “Mean? French was my first language though?”

 

Harry gasped again. “You can't teach babies French!”

 

Draco’s face scrunched up a little, and he took a while to answer that. “Kitten, do you mean ‘French’ like ‘curse words’?”

 

Harry nodded, looking at him with wide trusting eyes. “Yes, you can't teach babies that.”

 

Draco let out another tired laugh, and Harry tried to keep glaring at him, but then Draco’s hands were back up and petting into his fur on his ears, and Harry’s eyes rolled back a little before he let out a rumbling purr at the feeling, tail curling up pleasantly behind him.

 

“Harry, French is a language, like English or Arabic. You speak Arabic, right?”

 

Harry nodded. “I spoke Arabic before I spoke English. English is the foreigner's language. But the foreigner’s all give cuddles and foods so I learned that because they don’t know what meows mean, and I wanted food.”

 

Draco couldn’t help but marvel at the simplification of his words. “Well, Fleur speaks French, because that was  _ her _ first language.”

 

Harry pulled back with an offended guaff his little fingers curled up against Draco’s chest so he could sit himself up properly in his lap. Draco let his hands fall to the kitten’s sides, steading him so he didn’t fall off as he dropped down on the couch so Harry was sitting on his lower stomach instead. He rather thought Harry looked far too cute for his pouting to really have any effect. 

 

He never could bring himself to be jealous of Harry and Ginny’s relationship, Harry was just too damn cute to be upset with.

 

“Fleur doesn’t speak  _ French _ , she speaks the language of  _ love _ .”

 

It was Draco’s turn to laugh at that one, and Harry glared at him from his spot when it jostled him on Draco’s stomach. That wasn’t nice. His cheeks were puffed up and Draco wanted to pinch them a little. God he was cute. “Okay, Har, well that’s what the letter is written in. That’s the language of love.”

 

Harry kept on pouting, leaning in so he could curl up against Draco’s chest, tail wrapping around one of Draco’s wrists as he went back to petting at his ears, purrs starting to rumble up out of his chest again as he got comfortable.

 

“Your parents are weird. I think you should spend less time with them and more time with us. They don’t treat you nicely like family should.”

 

Draco looked down at the kitten in shock, but Harry’s eyes were already closed, so he gently turned them enough to get his feet up on the couch, letting Harry lie on him. “Yeah, Harry, I think so too.”

 

When Draco woke up from his unplanned nap, Harry was sitting up on his stomach, kneeding at Draco’s chest -which, while not unpleasant, was obviously what woke him- while he looked down at Draco with what Draco could only consider a contented rumble coming from his chest.

 

He’d only ever seen Harry do this to Ginny and Bill before. In fact, while he’s seen Harry fall asleep on most people they spend enough time with, he’s only ever given contented kneeding to a few of them. He’s probably done it to Fleur too, but Draco’s never seen her fall asleep in common areas.

 

He looked up at the cat with wide eyes, probably looking like startled prey at the moment, and cleared his throat after a moment. “Hey, kitten, what are you doing?”

 

Harry leaned in to nuzzle at him, sounding utterly happy. “Waiting for you to make me lunch.”

 

Draco snorted. “I have to make you lunch now?”

 

Harry nodded. “Humans make the food.”

 

He seemed to think that, didn’t he? Draco doesn’t think he’s ever seen Harry get food for himself before, always pestering whoever was closest to the kitchen for it. Sometimes Draco wondered why Bill was still trying to parent him as if he was a human, when it was so obviously clear he wasn’t.

 

“Okay, but you have to get off my chest.”

 

Harry pulled back, looking dubious. “Why?”

 

“So I can get up.”

 

“You can stand without me getting up though.”

 

Draco wanted to indulge him in that. Harry wasn’t all that big, barely the size of an eight year old -even if he did look like a fully adult being- and it was easily small enough to carry, but Bill was always trying to get him to walk on his own and act like a human. It took all of Draco’s -small, very small- self control not to indulge him. Bill was the one who took care of him, it wasn’t his place to reinforce behavior that Bill wanted to discourage.

 

It’s like babysitting someone else’s kid. If the babysitter starts letting them eat nothing but pizza and candy, they start wondering why their parents don’t do the same. It just isn’t good for their little brains to handle.

 

Cats were a lot like children. Draco had never wanted children before, but he didn’t want to mess up with Harry, because then Bill wouldn’t let him watch him.

 

Is it weird that Draco doesn’t mind watching him?

 

He sighed, sitting up enough on the couch for Harry to be upturned into his lap, where instead of righting himself, Harry proceeded to stare up at him with big eyes, before lazily lounging back against his legs as if it had been his idea all along. Draco had to hold back the stupid grin that wanted to come out at that, still trying to be firm so Harry wouldn’t walk all over him.

 

I mean, sleeping on him is fine, we’ll even pretend that it was Draco’s idea himself, but walking all over him is just too much.

 

No matter how utterly adorable it was.

 

“Harry, you can walk on your own. You don’t need to be carried. You’re not a baby.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes, flipping himself over on Draco’s lap and scrambling to get off of him and onto the couch. “Fleur calls me her baby. She says, she says that.”

 

Draco didn’t really know how else to put it. He’s got one owner saying he needs to be a big boy and walk on his own legs, and they other calling him a baby. It’s no wonder he was confused. He sighed, standing up from the couch and moving into a stretch that made his back pop. “Fine then, I’ll make you lunch, but you should come help me. Do you know how to cook, Harry?”

 

Because, let’s face it, Draco knows how to survive, but you don’t get much cooking experience from living with house elves all these years. Harry got up from the couch again, the end of his tail closed up in his right fist, and for a second Draco had to keep himself from cooing, it was precious. “I know how to cook if boxes have instructions. And if Fleur measures things for me. I don’t like numbers much. She’s gonna be a doctor though, and doctors know numbers.”

 

Draco snorted, leading the way into the kitchen, wanting to  _ die _ when Harry followed him in. Is this why Bill kept him? Because he was the cutest kitten to ever live? If so, Draco doesn’t feel all that bad about kidnapping Harry, because at this point, it’s what’s going to happen. He was so little and cute.

 

Draco wanted to wrap him up like a burrito and give him kisses and tell everyone Harry is his now.

 

Oh, maybe this is why some people adopt cats. A perpetual child to care for. They never get too big for Mommy and Daddy’s cuddles.

 

“Well, lucky for you, I know lots and lots of numbers. Come on, I think we can manage pasta together.”

 

Harry nodded. “Okay.”

 

***

 

When the rest of the Weasley’s got home, Draco was a little upset because he’d been having fun with the kitten, but the look on Harry’s face made everything worth it. When he saw Bill, he lit up like it was Christmas -and for all the kitten still didn’t remember a damn thing about holidays, it might as well have been because Bill was his entire world sometimes it seemed- and his big ears perked up tall on his head.

 

That is, before his lower lip started wobbling as he reached out his little arms towards Bill from where he was sitting at the kitchen table where Draco had made them dinner. It was sort of a reverse cry, as if he’d  _ forgotten _ for a moment that Bill wasn’t here, and now seeing him it was as if he wasn’t sure how he’d gotten through an entire day without him.

 

That’s when Draco realized that he could never steal the kitten from him, because he always did that when he saw Bill after a little bit without him. Christmas lights and crocodile tears were always the results.

 

Bill cooed at him in the way Draco had been wanting to earlier, pulling him up from the chair and into his arms. Bill was bigger than even Ron was, and he had this way of making Harry seem tiny in his arms. Bill was stern with Harry, always trying to get him to stand up on his own and be a big boy for him.

 

But maybe, that’s not always what Harry needs. He’s just a kitten, and he doesn’t understand all these human rules and regulations. He didn’t always understand why he needed to stand up on his own.

 

He was a smart boy though. He could speak a few languages, and could even reply to Draco and Fleur a little in French, even if he didn’t understand it was a language at all. He was good at magic when Bill started teaching him, and was almost a master level at wandless magic after practicing for so long. He outdid even Dumbledore in that category, and that had been amazing to watch.

 

Harry always confused him. He was just a kitten, and yet he was so smart and adapted.

 

But now he thinks he understands it. Kittens don’t really grow up like humans do. Maybe one day, but right now it seems like Harry was stuck in that in between where sometimes you could expect him to act perfectly adult and reasonable, but then he sees Bill for the first time in half a day and it’s water works and hugs.

 

He sighs a little, leaning against his hand as he watched Bill quietly coo at the boy, pulling him down into his lap as he took Harry’s place at the table, calming the boy fairly easily. Harry was curled up into him though, a few tears still slipping out every once in awhile. Draco couldn’t see him as anything but the kitten he was right now.

 

He looked up from the two of them when someone else showed up at the kitchen door while Molly started bustling around in the background with Fred and George pestering her about something, and found Fleur there. She obviously didn’t want Harry to see her yet though -because that usually meant a repeat of the reverse cry and need for cuddles- because she was quietly waving a hand at him for him to follow her. With a look back at the kitten to see he was distracted with Bill still, he followed her out into the living room where she was standing near the coffee table.

 

Where the letter from his parents was still sitting. He sighed.

 

“I’m sorry, Draco, I didn’t mean to read it, but once I started…”

 

Draco nodded, pulling the letter off the table and rolling it back into a scroll and sitting down on the couch. Fleur looked between him and the kitchen doorway again before sitting down next to him and pulling him into a surprisingly tight hug.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Draco closed his eyes, not hugging her back, but squeezing one hand around hers. “It’s fine.”

 

She pulled back, looking him in the eyes. “Is it?”

 

He thought about that.  _ Actually _ thought about it, and nodded. “Yes. Mother says Father won’t come to the wedding. She says she’ll try to be there if she can. It’s not much, but it’s what it is. If he doesn’t want to be there, I can’t do anything about that. There’s no use crying about it.”

 

Fleur looked back over at the kitchen doorway. “Do you think Harry wants to cry when he sees us? I’m pretty sure he’d be happier if he could play a game, or even get a treat, which is usually what we try to do when we’ve been away from him for a bit. I don’t think he wants the first thing we see to be tears.”

 

Draco couldn’t help but see her reasoning, as much as he didn’t want to. “I think that Harry is just a kitten. He’s not big enough to know any better.”

 

“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t realize there’s no point to crying when he sees us. He knows we’re here, and he knows we love him and want to be with him. Emotions don’t follow logic, in fact, it’s exactly the opposite. Emotions are the bane of all logical reasoning.”

 

Draco turned enough to loosen the hold she still had on him, but didn’t try to pull out of it. “But I’m not crying.”

 

She nodded, almost cautiously. “No, you’re not. Why’s that?”

 

Draco shrugged. “I have the family I chose. I don’t give a damn if they come or not, in fact, I would probably be happier if they stayed away, because I don’t want them getting in the way of the life I want, because it’s not the life they  _ chose _ for me.”

 

She pulled back from him with a wry grin on her face, looking proud of him. “A parent should love their children no matter what they choose. Yours didn’t do that.”

 

Draco shook his head. “No, they didn’t. I’m tired of disappointing them, but not because I want their approval, but because I don’t deserve their disapproval.”

 

Fleur sighed a little, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek before standing up again. “You’re too wise for your age, Draco.”

 

Draco rolled his eyes. “Don’t praise me for that one, it was Harry who made me see that.”

 

Fleur grinned outright now, the pride showing at just the mention of it. “Of course he’s wise, he’s my baby kitten of course.”

 

Draco followed her back into the kitchen, rolling his eyes at her as he watched her go to greet Harry. He didn’t cry this time, thankfully. That’s good, it always hurt Draco’s heart when he cried.

 

He was starting to see now, why Bill got him to stand up on his own, even when five minute later he was sitting in your lap again. He’s starting to think that Harry was probably more well rounded than any of them.

**Author's Note:**

> harrypottergays.tumblr.com


End file.
